22 December 2012 12:00 AM

The West is heading into the abyss

To an astonishing silence by the media on both sides of
the pond, the US along with the UK and a number of European governments is leading
the west into an abyss. I have repeatedly noted here that the US, UK and France
helped bring to power in Egypt Islamic extremists hostile to the free world,
and were threatening to do something very similar in Syria. Now they have indeed
done so by recognising the Syrian National Council as the legitimate leader of
the Syrian opposition.

The thinking behind this is to designate the al-Qaeda
linked Jabhat al-Nusra as a terrorist group, while supporting the Muslim Brotherhood
– which dominates the Syrian National Council -- as a reasonable alternative. But
this is the same catastrophic mistake the US et al have made in Egypt. For the Brotherhood
are not a reasonable alternative to Islamic extremists hostile to the west. They
are themselves Islamic extremists hostile to the west.

The disastrous implications of this fundamental strategic
mistake were spelled out in a forensic
piece by Jonathan Spyer in the Jerusalem Post. As Spyer observed:

‘The difference between
the Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood affiliated groups is one of degree, not
of kind.

‘... The focus on Jabhat
al Nusra should not obscure the fact that the better-organized, non-Salafi,
home grown, Muslim Brotherhood elements that the US is backing are no less
anti-western and no less anti-Jewish.

‘Could things have been
different? As with Egypt, perhaps, if the west had perceived the risks and
opportunities clearly at the start. This might have triggered a vigorous policy
of support for non-Islamist opposition and fighting elements, which were there.

‘The result is that the
force now facing the retreating Assad regime is split between differing brands
of Sunni Arab Islamism, some aligned with the west, some directly opposing it,
but all holding fast to fundamentally anti-western ideologies.’

Barry
Rubin spells out even more starkly the looming disaster for the west from
its idiocy over Syria:

‘American intelligence
agents in southern Turkey supervise the handover of weapons to the rebels. They
make no attempt to stop arms from going to the Muslim Brotherhood and the
Salafists while they make no attempt to funnel the guns to moderates. The only
restriction is that they not go to al-Qaeda-affiliated Salafists.

‘One day, those guns will
be used to commit unspeakable atrocities against Christians and other minority
groups just as they will be used to install an Islamist regime and to kill or
intimidate its opponents.’

The mistake being made by the US and the rest is as
deep-seated as it is egregious. The campaign in the west to promote the Muslim
Brotherhood (to its motto: ‘Islam is the solution’ one obviously has to ask, ‘But
what is the problem?’) as helpful allies against those who want to bring
the west down has been making relentless and dismaying progress into the
establishment for years – an establishment that refuses to see the Brothers for
what they are, in essence because it refuses to acknowledge that what the west
is now up against is a religious war. From that most profound and seminal error,
all follows.

But when you look at Barack Obama, you see another factor
at work which is not simply the strategic stupidity that results from an
appeasement mentality, nor a myopic view of the national interest, nor the unsurpassed
arrogance and ignorance of cultural hubris, all of which drive western foreign
policy.

Just look at Obama’s favoured candidates for the two US
administration positions central to the defence of the west. They are both
people whose attitudes would in fact deeply endanger it still further. John Kerry,
tipped to become Secretary of State, is an anti-war activist and left-wing
fantasist who, despite serving as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee,
is such a man-made global warming fanatic that he believes
climate change is

‘as dangerous as any of
the sort of real crises that we talk about’

ie, as dangerous as say, Syrian chemical weapons or a
nuclear Iran.

The record of Chuck Hagel, Obama’s favoured candidate
for Defence Secretary, is more troubling still, as outlined here.
He has consistently downplayed Iran’s terrorist record and the danger it poses
to the free world. He consistently voted against sanctions on Iran to stop its pursuit
of nuclear weapons capability; he voted against naming Iran’s Revolutionary Guards
a terrorist organization; and he refused to sign a letter calling on the
European Union similarly to name Hezbollah – which has the blood of countless
Americans on its hands -- as a terrorist organisation. Instead, he advocates ‘engaging’
with Iran – ie, appeasement, which he prefers
to parse as

‘“... a
bridge-building process, an opportunity to better understand” others on
the basis of “mutual self respect.”’

This is all of a piece with his attitudes towards Israel
and the Jews. Not only is he associated with gross anti-Israel canards which
reverse truth and lies, but he also said
that

‘the Jewish lobby
intimidates a lot of people up here...’

‘up here’ meaning Washington.

Whether or not these men are actually appointed is not
the issue. The key point is that Obama wants to appoint them, from which
we may infer that he believes they will enact his own vision of foreign and
defence policy.

What therefore is the factor that Obama brings to the
west’s dismal foreign policy table as illustrated by these truly appalling
choices? Malice. Against the west, and also against the ancient civilisation that
lies at the heart of its moral codes. Factor that into the truly stupendous myopia
and worse of Britain and Europe, and you are looking at the emergence of a new
world order: the eclipse of the west, brought about by the unholy alliance
between the Obama administration and death-wish Britain and Europe – and leaving
Israel, once the forward salient of the west in the Middle East, emerging instead
as the lonely and isolated defender of liberty in the face of the gathering Islamic
storm.

Richard Conway,
Israel is the last bastion of the West, you say. I believe you are right. If you do as you urge Graham Casey and read some history you will learn that what the "civilised" West has brought the "Lesser Races" is brutal colonialism, dispossession, and death. It is a puzzle, but the lesser races seem to take against us.

Melanie Phillips,
You misjudge Obama. He does the job he is paid to do. He listens to the (sometimes conflicting) demands of those who provide his funding, the military-industrial-financial-national security elite, and he tries to do what best satisfies those demands, while maintaining the effortless hypocrisy any US President requires. You are perhaps misled by the fact that what the elite demands is not always what the neo-cons want - and not always what Bibi Netanyahu (the Israeli national security elite) wants.

Your point about Islamic fundamentalists is well taken. However, the US, and before it the UK, have long winked at fundamentalism if the quid pro quo was control of oil reserves; and they have long used Islamic extremists, including the Brotherhood, to undermine Arab nationalists. They don't seem much bothered about the "blowback" - they use the same villains again and again. It wil be interesting to see whether they manage to reach an accommodation with the Brotherhood in Egypt (who need their money), and what they and the Saudis will do with the Islamist extremists once they have used them to tear Syria apart. Will they then provide a pretext for a continuing "war on terror" wherever else we have need of a pretext?

//.'the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here'.......‘up here’ meaning Washington//........which part of that is untrue? The two most influential lobbies in Washington - AIPAC and the NRA. It's noticed if you don't sign up as Mel demonstrates. And then to go on and accuse the US President of 'malice against the West'? The US President REPRESENTS the West and perhaps the West is changing. Most certainly Israel does not represent the West in any way I recognise any more. The days of Western Empire and colonialism are drawing to a close. Israel owes its existence to Western power games in the Middle East, Whilst it will not be abandoned by the West , if attacked, the days of unstinting support of Israeli expansion and aggression are surely numbered. Israel is perfectly entitled to defend itself and its military is generously supported by the US but it does not represent much to do with what we wish to be in the world any more, nor has it been for a very long time a defender of
Liberty.

Having wondered for some time why the west was having so much difficulty in finding well informed, loyal and effective leaders I conclude we are suffering the effects of shallow education and left wing infiltration of our institutions in the 1960s. The current bunches of politicians in the US, UK and EU are behaving like fifth formers behind the wood shed with a chemistry kit stolen from the lab and determined to try out the contents.

They have little idea what might be the outcome from their massive scale social and economic experiments but the left wing theory they have absorbed says it will be all right for them in the end. Instance the statement this week from Washington which says it firmly believes that the departure of the UK (which it describes as its strongest partner in Europe but hardly treats us as such) would reduce American influence on the continent; by what means can they imagine we have any influence now with different objectives (at least among the people), different legal traditions and 8% of the vote!

The State Department claimed "an EU without Britain would be seen as weaker on free trade and less reliable on defence and foreign policy issues". Who dreams up this tosh? The EU is not a free trade organisation, it has no interest in supporting the US on defense and on foreign policy it is an active competitor with the US and Anglosphere interests.

Kerry "a man-made global warming fanatic"? He has a respect for the scientific method and institutions, which constitute the one and only way humankind has found to establish reliable explanations of the natural world - in his respect for it he is rational. It takes fanaticism to reject our one and only way to establish reliable explanations of the natural world. If the scientists are anywhere near right about climate, then Kerry is correct - climate change will be a crisis that dwarves Syria's "WMD" or an Israeli nuclear attack on Iran (or an even less likely Iranian attack on Israel).

Graham, haven't you heard?, Israels neighbours don't want to be friends with Israel. They want to kill everybody in Israel. Is there something wrong with being 'pro-Israeli'? Israel is a democratic, free nation surrounded by dictatorships, and extremist killers. If Israel isn't worthy of our support then what is? Do we infer that you would like to see the Muslim Brotherhood et al in the west?

Good luck with those friendly neighbours! Conversion is the only "friendly" they understand. Speak to the Christians in Egyptian, Syria etc, of course their are now Jews living in any other country in the region except Iran, having been terrorised from their homes in the region, and tin iran hey pay a tax for being Jewish and are fearful for their family and their lives if they criticise govt, also they can't vote for any mp just the one Jewish mp they are allowed to vote for. Your comment is the scary comment and shows the usual approach which is " if we blame Israel maybe this problem will go away" we'll it won't and once Israel is gone we'll all be speaking out of both sides of our mouth as hilar Clinton has started to do by defending the indefensible. These are irrational people who can't be appeased. shameful.

Actually Melanie, Hagel voted again Unilateral sanctions against Iran, and tried to get Multi-lateral sanctions imposed, including the EU, UN etc. as, in his words "unilateral sanctions do not work if everyone else is breaking them". Oh,by the way, he actually hasn't even been nominated, or even "leaked" as being nominated for the post yet - rather jumping the gun here?

I agree with Mr Casey. If Melanie Phillips were to read Ilan Pappe's 'Ethic Cleansing of Palestine', most of it taken from Ben-Gurion's private diaries and Israeli intelligence sources, she would better understand the dynamics of the Middle East and realise that the courses of action she denigrates (she is never positive) have a living history and that the " gross anti- Israeli canards are not canards at all.

A clever article that begins as a criticism of Western policy in Syria, most people would agree with that. Then the pro-Israeli slant of the article becomes apparent.Chuck Hagel and Kerry come in for a slating and it must be inferred from the article that this is because they potentially do not tow the party line and unconditionally support Israel, an unusual and sometimes dangerous stance to take in Washington. In 2006 Hagel was quoted saying: "I'm a United States senator," he said, "not an Israeli senator." If indeed Israel does end up isolated then it may have to make friends with its neighbours which could be a very good outcome for the world.

Post a comment

Comments are moderated, and will not appear on this weblog until the moderator has approved them. They must not exceed 500 words. Web links cannot be accepted, and may mean your whole comment is not published.